King Mojo Club Special At Twisted Wheel

King Mojo Club Special at Twisted Wheel.

105-107 Princess Street, Manchester, M1 6DD

Playing Mojo & Wheel Classics.

**KING MOJO CLUB SPECIAL** with resident DJs Pete Roberts, John Green, Jock Heron and guest DJ:-

JOHN MARRIOTT [pictured with Johnnie Taylor]

Peter Stringfellow's King MOJO Club

Peter Stringfellow cemented his place in the history of the UK Soul Scene when he opened the King Mojo Club in March 1964, with his brother Geoff, in the Pitsmoor area of Sheffield.

Peter, known affectionately in Sheffield as 'Stringy', was much more than a DJ who put records on a turntable. He was a showman who introduced the many big stars that appeared at the Mojo and he loved to dance on stage and hold out the mic to the crowd to sing the chorus of classic tracks.

In the main, the music played at the Mojo mirrored what was played at the Wheel, starting with R&B (as played at Brazennose St) before Soul (as played at Whitworth St) became the more popular genre, with the emergence of Atlantic, Stax and Motown artists. Many of those artists were booked by Stringy to appear at the Mojo.
The list is too long to include in this summary but most notably, Edwin Starr made his UK debut there in 1966, Ronnie Lane of the Small Faces said “Our first big break was at the Mojo Club in Sheffield, a club that was really happening at the time. It was F****** good. It was a bit like a Ready Steady Go sort of club, full of Mods”*. Stevie Wonder, along with his 20 piece band, appeared at a Sunday Alldayer in October 1967.

The Mojo was forced to close by the authorities in October 1967 and Stringy went on to find the kind of worldwide fame and fortune that he is better known for outside of Sheffield.  
The Twisted Wheel owners, the Abadi brothers, were no doubt very grateful that numbers at the Wheel were swelled by some of the Mojo crowd after it closed and occasionally, some of them can still be seen at the Wheel these days!

These two premier Soul and R&B clubs, together with the many other Soul and R&B clubs operating at the time, were the foundation of today's 'Northern Soul' scene.
On 6 June 2018, Pete sadly lost his battle with cancer so, following on from an event in Sheffield on 14 July to celebrate the Mojo and it's music, it seemed appropriate to have a similar event at the Wheel. To ensure a degree of authenticity to this Wheel / Mojo event, the guest DJ, John Marriott, was a club regular at the Mojo from early 1965 until its demise in late 1967.

Brett Speddings - Mojo (1966 – 1967) and Wheel (1966 – 1971)

Acknowledgements:-
* Memories Of Sheffield's King MOJO Club by Dave Manvill & John Firminger (with Peter J. Stringfellow)

9pm-2am, £5 pay on the door.

For more details and photos from recent events:-

http://twistedwheel.net

or email: twistedwheel@tiscali.co.uk

Future Dates:- Sunday 9th September, Sunday 30th September, Sunday 14th October.